About the Book: Let there be Light: Engineering, Entrepreneurship and
Electricity in Colonial Bengal, 18801945
Social and economic history of science and technology has emerged as a major
theme of interdisciplinary research in South Asian history since the late 1990s.
This book studies the correlation between technological knowledge and industrial
performance, with the focus on electricity, an emerging technology during 1880
and 1945. The arrival of electricity necessitated the introduction of new
institutional facilities, and with the growth of technological system, a new
business culture grew-there was demand for trained manpower to handle machines
and better educational facilities. Taking a broad view of the subject, the
narrative of